Historical Context
Breast cancer can be traced back to time of ancient Egypt. The oldest description of breast cancer was found on an Egyptian document called the Edwin Smith Papyrus that was discovered inside an Egyptian textbook on trauma surgery dating back to 3000 BC. According to the papyrus stating, “There is no treatment”, for cancer, but palliative treatment meaning they were treated to improve quality of life until their death, the text describes of 8 cases in which tumors or ulcers were removed by cauterization with an ancient tool called the fire drill. This was the form of treatment that was available during this time period.
At the dawn of the 15th century, famous scientists like Galileo and Isaac Newton were starting to make use of the scientific method to further research this disease. Were it not for the use of the scientific method the following discoveries would not have happened and/or benefited the cause to deter breast cancer. An English physician named William Harvey (1628) performed autopsies on cadavers to learn that circulation of blood went to the heart and around the body, that information until then had been a mystery.8 In 1761 Giovanni Battista Morgagni “did autopsies to relate the patient’s illness to pathologic findings after death. This laid the foundation for scientific oncology, the study of cancer.” A famous surgeon named John Hunter (1728-1793) suggested that certain cancers could be cured by surgery and how the operating surgeon could decide which cancers to operate on. If the tumor was rendered “moveable” he said, “There is no impropriety in removing it.” “A century later the development of anesthesia allowed surgery to flourish and classic cancer operations such as the radical mastectomy were developed.”.8
At the start of the 19th century was the time in which scientific oncology (the study of cancer) was born thanks to the invention of the modern microscope diseased tissues could be examined for research. A man named Rudolf Virchow, otherwise known as the father of cellular pathology, provided the scientific basis for modern studies of cancer.8
Breast cancer is a disease which has plagued the world since the dawn of civilization and up until the scientific expertise of the 21st century this disease has finally seen its match by modern medicine.
Breast cancer can be traced back to time of ancient Egypt. The oldest description of breast cancer was found on an Egyptian document called the Edwin Smith Papyrus that was discovered inside an Egyptian textbook on trauma surgery dating back to 3000 BC. According to the papyrus stating, “There is no treatment”, for cancer, but palliative treatment meaning they were treated to improve quality of life until their death, the text describes of 8 cases in which tumors or ulcers were removed by cauterization with an ancient tool called the fire drill. This was the form of treatment that was available during this time period.
At the dawn of the 15th century, famous scientists like Galileo and Isaac Newton were starting to make use of the scientific method to further research this disease. Were it not for the use of the scientific method the following discoveries would not have happened and/or benefited the cause to deter breast cancer. An English physician named William Harvey (1628) performed autopsies on cadavers to learn that circulation of blood went to the heart and around the body, that information until then had been a mystery.8 In 1761 Giovanni Battista Morgagni “did autopsies to relate the patient’s illness to pathologic findings after death. This laid the foundation for scientific oncology, the study of cancer.” A famous surgeon named John Hunter (1728-1793) suggested that certain cancers could be cured by surgery and how the operating surgeon could decide which cancers to operate on. If the tumor was rendered “moveable” he said, “There is no impropriety in removing it.” “A century later the development of anesthesia allowed surgery to flourish and classic cancer operations such as the radical mastectomy were developed.”.8
At the start of the 19th century was the time in which scientific oncology (the study of cancer) was born thanks to the invention of the modern microscope diseased tissues could be examined for research. A man named Rudolf Virchow, otherwise known as the father of cellular pathology, provided the scientific basis for modern studies of cancer.8
Breast cancer is a disease which has plagued the world since the dawn of civilization and up until the scientific expertise of the 21st century this disease has finally seen its match by modern medicine.